Paint it Black
by Skanky Frankie
Summary: AU. In a post-apocalyptic world, Bella and Edward meet under dangerous circumstances... Lemons of course to come...


Paint it Black

Skanky Frankie

Rating: M

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, or anything else.

_I see a red door and I want it painted it black._

_No colors anymore I want them to turn black._

_I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes_

_I have to turn my head until my darkness goes..._

"Paint it Black," The Rolling Stones

Chapter 1

Bella Swan raked a hand through her long dark hair, mentally listing all of the things that had gone wrong with the past twenty four hours. She thought of her old, rusty truck in some random shop on the side of the road outside of Forks, Washington. She thought of her laptop, sitting lifeless in the hotel room she had rented - the one in the flea bag motel, where Alice and Jasper were currently making inhuman noises as they fucked. The last thought on her mind was her rumbling stomach - she was aching for a cheeseburger, pounds of greasy French fries, and a big chocolate shake.

The worst part about working with vampires was that they only got hungry once in a while - and their blood hunger was easily cured with a trip into whatever wooded area was around. Bella could hardly find time to eat, let alone count on her partners to help remind her, when they were on the road. When they were so close...

It was raining as Bella walked across the parking lot to the diner. It was in the same lot as the hotel, one of those dingy, twenty four hour type places. She pushed open the door, grabbing a stool at the bar. She pulled out the big map she had been studying of Washington.

Bella unfolded it, smoothing out the creases with her small hands. She had crossed off a majority of towns. They were a lot like the one she was currently in - not promising, at all.

"What can I get for you?"

Bella glanced up, startled. A short, heavy woman with a pen and notepad was staring down at Bella expectantly. "Um, yes... Can I get a cheese burger with fries and a chocolate shake?"

"Coming right up," the woman wheezed, and Bella wondered if she chain-smoked back in the kitchen. Shaking her head, Bella bent back over the map, taking out her black Sharpie to follow the snaking line of highway they had driven to get to get to Forks. She pulled out her notebook from her canvas messenger bag, and flipped open to the first page, where Alice had scribbled the things she saw.

_Cloudy - somehwere in the northeast, like Seattle_

_Green - forresty, also somewhere in the northeast_

_Small town - not Seattle, a low-key place_

_Carlisle Cullen - leader?_

_Great hunting! _

Bella shook her head, smiling. She knew that Alice and Jasper were sick of having to scavenge all night long, staying out of the human eye. It was too dangerous for all parties involved. With all of the bounty hunters out there trying to capture vampires and kill them - Bella's throat constricted at the thought of losing the only two people in the world that were for her cause, that she had grown to love in the past six months of travel...

She sighed, circling Forks on the map. So far, it didn't seem the kind of place where someone would be hiding vampires - an underground group of many vampires, all trying to keep together, keep safe, keep alive... Alice had been seeing them for a long time, ever since the new rules had been put out.

"What's that?"

Bella glanced up, her chocolaty brown eyes meeting a golden, topaz pair. She gasped, her hand immediately grabbing fluttering to her neck.

"It looks as though you're searching for something..." Bella gulped, trying to remember that all vampires were good looking. This one in particular... He had wild, touseled bronze hair, the palest skin with deep purple shadows under his haunting eyes. He was the most handsome man that Bella had ever seen - dead or alive.

"Nope!" Bella exclaimed, folding everything up and jamming it back into her bag. The last thing she needed was some human-eater trying to get on the band wagon. That was the entire reason Bella had agreed to travel and help Alice and Jasper - they were vegetarians - meaning of course, that they ate animals only. And the coven hidden somewhere in the northeast were also vegetarian vampires.

Human-suckers, not allowed.

The gorgeous guy gave her a curious look before sliding the plate full of food, along with her chocolate shake, onto the counter in front of her. Bella forgot her concern about the guy trying to ear her for a moment, inhaling the delicious smell of food in front of her. She didn't know what to eat first... With a sigh, she grabbed the ketchup and squirted it onto the hamburger patty, alone with some mustard, before putting the bun on top and taking a big, greasy bite. Bella couldn't help the moan of ecstasy as she chewed the food.

Bella remembered all the wonderful things in the world. Butterflies, flowers, puppies, strawberry ice cream... Everything she cared about before the new rules, new reign...

She glanced up at the guy, who was leaning against the counter, watching her.

"Can I help you?" Bella asked through a mouthful of food.

He was staring at her hard, almost angrily.

"Ok, creepy man..." Bella rolled her eyes, before poking her straw into the chocolate shake. She sucked hard to get the cold ice cream into her mouth. It tasted better than she could have ever imagined. She tried not to study the handsome vampire while he was staring at her. She felt the blush creep into her cheeks, and wished that he wouldn't pay attention to her.

"What brings you to Forks?" he asked, straightening up. Bella tried not to watch as he crossed his strong-looking arms over his chest, the tendons and muscles straining beneath the pushed up sleeves of his dark long-john shirt.

"Um," Bella said, sucking hard on her straw. She had never formulated an exact answer to that question - touring America was highly unlikely, not to mention ridiculous, under the current rule in their once democratic country. Ever since the new world order, things were different. The vampires that had once tried to live known among humans were now banished to the underground, doomed to pretend and hunt and live in fear of persecution. All Bella wanted was to help them... The good ones, anyway. Not that she could tell a total stranger this, of course. "I'm visiting family."

"Who?" he asked, his golden eyes narrowing down at her. Bella repressed a shiver.

"They're in Port Angeles. I'm just passing through." _Good_, Bella thought, mentally patting herself on the back. That was a viable excuse.

"I see," the guy said, a muscle flickering in his jaw as he locked his teeth together. Bella hated to admit that not only was this guy undeniably creepy, but unbelievably attractive. She wanted to believe that it was just the lighting that made his pale flesh so white, that the dark circles under his eyes were from lack of sleep - working third shift in a diner could do that to a person... But she was well acquainted with the signs of vampirism. She knew, deep in her bones, that the person she was dealing with had venom filling his mouth right now at the scent of her blood - much like hers when she salivated for cheeseburgers...

But he seemed to be keeping his cool. Though his hands were clenched into the meat of his biceps, he did not act like he wanted to tear her throat out.

"Do you have friends with you?" he asked, his mouth twitching in a smile. _He can smell the vampire on me,_ Bella realized, blushing lightly. She shrugged non-comittally. She watched his face - torn between concern and fury - before he practically kissing her, his face so close to hers that she could feel his icy breath on her cheeks, which heated immediately with a crimson blush. "Are you in some kind of trouble?" he whispered, so low that Bella had to strain to hear him.

_Oh Christ,_ she thought, feeling her thighs tremble. _Hot bloodsucker!_

"No," she whispered, shaking her head. "I'm not in any trouble..."

"I can smell them on you," he whispered, his voice thick with bitterness. "You don't need to protect them. They want your blood."

Bella gulped, air becoming harder to inhale. He was too close - her head swam with a strange fog, making words difficult to find and figure out how to use. She closed her eyes, inhaling him - he smelled strangely like any other human boy, but with an indefinably frosty edge. She felt her heart begin to race, the pulse throb throughout her body.

"So do you," she accused, finding a shred of sanity.

Edward wanted to rip her across the bar, to hear the satisfying sound of the ceramic plate being splintered against the linoleum floor. He wanted to pull her thick curtain of dark hair to the side, place gentle, sensous kisses all over the thin flesh that covered her neck (how it was supposed to protect what lied beneath the miniscule layer of skin, he had no idea - he could see the blue of her veins racing intricate highways benath the alabaster material) before sinking his venomous teeth into her, sucking her blood into his mouth... He could taste it now, sweet and metallic. She smelled so intoxicatingly good to him, so pliable and delicate beneath his inhumanly strong hands.

Edward Cullen lusted for _her._

It had never occured to him that this could happen. He supposed that after one hundred and seven years, his mate had passed on, would not come to exist. He watched the others in their coven, saw how the love flowed between partners, and assumed it would never happen to him.

Until he smelled her scent. The scent of blood mixed with flowers and the musky sweet that came from between her legs. Her whole body was a delicious feast, and he wanted to devour her.

But of course, he was vegetarian. He would never take the life of a human, not even one that smelled so tempting as this one. He was trying not to breathe, but trying to be human as well. It was difficult, putting on the charade. Until Edward knew he could not resist one tiny fraction of a whiff off her skin again... His nostrils flared, and his eyes narrowed.

Vampires. The unmistakable scent - nothing unpleasant, it was the same frosty smell as him, sort of - permeated off of her, easily disguised by how intensely she smelled. Immediately, Edward wanted to protect her. He did not want to wonder if it was because he simply wanted her blood for himself.

"They want your blood."

"So do you," she said, and her voice was huskier than she probably intended. Edward cursed his immortality for much more than the hundredth time. That was the problem with humans - they were attracted to the beautiful shell that encased his dangerous insides. If only they could see something worse - a zombie, his immortal flesh hanging off his bones, decrepid, morbid visions of what he should look like... Dead. Not an eternal teenager, with a dazzling appearance to draw his prey in.

"I'm not like them," he said, wanting desperately to touch her, reassure her, but not wanting to take any chances. Her skin would be like touching a flame, but painless.

"And why should I trust you?" she whispered, opening her eyes. He was mesmerized by their depth; brown eyes usually appeared flat. But her's were warm, chocolatey, and deeper than perhaps the deepest part of the ocean. He could easily lose himself in them.

Edward bit his lip, pushing away from the counter where she sat. He looked away from her, out to the parking lot where the only vehicle in the lot, parked in front of one of the cheap motel rooms, sat motionless. It was an ancient truck, rusted red - a very sturdy looking vehicle. He knew that there had to be vampires inside of that tiny room, and he wondered why they had let their captive human wander by herself.

"You shouldn't," he replied, sending her an angry look. He wanted her to tremble with fear - instead he could smell the increase flow of juices from her body. "I'm a vampire," he whispered. "I'm the enemy."

"I happen to be looking for some enemies," the little, dark haired girl said. "I'm looking for -" She broke off, blushing hard. He could hear her heart beating hard and quickly inside of her chest, and sighed. So guilty he was, thinking of the innocent victims that fell prey to the undeniable good looks of his kind. "I'm looking for vampires in this area," she mumbled.

"_Looking_ for? Are you trying to die?" he growled, and the girl leaned back away from the bar. Her eyes widened, and he watched as she leaned a fraction to far - and slid straight off of the stool. In a fraction of a second, he was pulling her off the ground, checking her for any signs of vital danger.

"Damn backless seats," she grumbled, rubbing her bottom and blushing. She glanced down at his hand, cupping her clothed elbow, and blushed straight to the roots of her dark hair.

"Are you all right?"

"Nothing is hurt but my ego," she replied, flashing a sarcastic grin. Edward relaxed, and let go of her quickly - like a human that realized they were burning themselves, it took a second to feel the sting.

Edward raked a hand through his touseled bronze locks, shaking his head. He watched as she found her way back onto the stool, leaning on her elbows as though to anchor herself there. "I'm not trying to die. I'm trying to help my friends."

"The vampire friends?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

The girl nodded. "I'm looking for Carlisle Cullen." Edward felt, had he had a heart, it would have flickered.

"I'll need to meet your friends... speak with them, of course," he said, making his face a blank slate. He knew that many vampires heard about Cullen, thought that it was an easy way to stay alive... They had to turn away many, many nice people that could not adapt to their way of living. Edward understood - it was very, very difficult to resist the daily temptation of blood that seemed to surround them.

"Of course," she echoed him, and he saw a faint smile on her lips. "We've been searching for so long... Alice knew bits, but not everything... It's been very hard to find you."

"That was the point."

A/N: Ooooh. I like this, a lot. Darker, better. There will be lemons to come, of course - but not for a second. I always want to make them do it ASAP, but Edward's all OMG virtue and Bella's like OMG v-card time! So I can't force them together like I like without both of them getting raped by my brain. So, sorry about that... If only their were sluttier... Sigh. Updates coming for Linger, Part Duex of Criminal Behavior...

However, writing that will be so boring compared to this!


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